and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to show you the lowest prices... so you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. dates, deals, done! tripadvisor. visit tripadvisor.com thank you for joining "inside politics." i'm dana bash. john king has the day off. president trump is meeting with his cabinet as homeland security secretary kirsten nielsen is

working on how to reunite kids separated at the border. but details are scant. and they're trying to get enough members behind at least one immigration bill up a vote today. is the president, though, undermining their efforts? all of this while democratic leaders are trying to take advantage of the president's 180. >> i hope this represents a turning point with the president. i hope it means this president will stop blaming others for problems he creates and start fixing them himself. >> the president is either not knowing, not caring, delusional and in denial about his own policies being outside the circle of civilized human behavior. and you're looking live at -- excuse me, if moments ago, protests on capitol hill. they're crowding the rotunda and

their cause is, of course, separation of families. we're going to monitor what's going on there. but as we speak, republicans are voting on procedural rules for a pair of gop immigration bills, bills that the house will vote on this afternoon, dealing with everything from border security to that wall and so-called dreamers. but hopes are far from high that anything will actually pass this morning one senior gop had handicapped the odds this way, saying closer to cooked than passage. house speaker paul ryan just moments ago sounded pretty pessimistic. >> even if we get something out of here, you need nine democrats to stop trying to stop things, and i don't see that happening. >> more from capitol hill in just a few minutes, but we begin this hour at the white house where the president is about to hold a cabinet meeting. cnn's abby phillips is there, and the president stopped

separations, but zero tolerance is in full intact. describe what that means and >> reporter: that's right, dana. a hastily drafted executive order predictably leads to some chaos here as the administration struggles to explain how exactly they're going to enforce it. as you just mentioned, that zero tolerance policy is still in effect, which means people crossing the border illegally are still going to be prosecuted, but instead of separating those families at the border at that point, the administration says they're going to keep those families together in detention if it is safe for the children in order to do so. the question now turns to these 2300 children who have been separated already from their families in the last six weeks or so. and last night there was a lot of confusion about this, because administration officials were saying at first that there were no plans at all to reunite these families. then later they said they misspoke and now this morning customs and border protection has said that what they're going to do is reunite families once

these individuals have been through the process, the prosecution process, for crossing the border illegally and that they're working toreun process that they are in the process of putting together as we speak. so this is really a policy that this administration is putting together on the fly, and at the same time while this is happening, there are some questions about what is happening to the families even when they're being detained together. are they going to be detained indefinitely with parents and children together and where and for how long? so dana, a lot of questions here for this white house, for this president. we'll hear from him shortly in just a few minutes. >> we're looking forward to seeing what he says when he's sitting at that table with his cabinet members. thank you so much for that report, abby. here at the table to share their reporting and insights, malika henderson, jackie cucinich with

"the daily beast" and the "new york times." let's start with where abby left off. so many unanswered questions. very important questions. one of the things that struck me about what she said is that right now, and this could change in an hour because we're getting so many directives as they do figure outs policy on flight, is thfligh the fly, is the children we've seen in these facilities might not be reunited with their parents until their parents are already prosecuted, and that could take a while becseare su there aren't enough judges, there aren't enough people down there to actuall adjudicate their issues. >> yeah. i mean, some of the estimates are it could take hundreds of days, right? one of the things you've seen from folks on the hill is maybe we should get more immigration judges to speed this process along. donald trump says no, we don't need more immigration judges to handle this. i think the white house yesterday sort of thought they were kind of clearing the decks

on this, kind of moving things along, turning the page from some of the awful stories about these kids in tender age facilities, some of them as young as nine months old. it's not clear how quickly they will be reunited with their parents if all these private facilities are actually up to it in terms of caring for those kids adequately. some reports are they might not be. there will be more and more that and the white house really needs to figure out how to get this resolved as far as the logistics of it. that's what's going on now. >> the white house also -- there was a program that was eliminated by i.c.e. a year ago. almost exactly a year ago. and it was called the family case management system. what it did was it made sure these families showed up for their court dates. after they were processed, they were allowed to come back. it was eliminated and we haven't gotten answers of why it was eliminated. it worked. it was extremely effective.

and now it's gone. well before this process of separating families was in place. it's one thing to build the airplane while it's taking off when there aren't small children involved that are without their parents that have already been subjected to trauma. but the fact there was no plan in place is just another disaster, self-inflicted wound by this white house. >> you're really looking at substituting one crisis with another, ending family separation, and i really have questions whether they will be able to family separation under the scenario that trump has posed and replacing it with indefinite family detention. that was almost a controversy when oma was doing that. there were so many protests. the district policy measure confronted many protests about this issue. and there were many complai about alleged abuse in these facilities. this is one problem just replaced with another. >> it is, and it could grow. because as you said, jackie, the

process has changed, what i.c.e. was doing before has changed, and the reason, i think, it has is because the president's so-called zero tolerance policy is in full effect. and they don't want to release people and just say, okay, we expect you to come back for this court date on x date, because they're keeping people detained -- >> and they eliminated the program to get them back because of budget cuts. >> budget cuts, and i to be tougher. >> that's why i said they eliminated the program was because of budget cuts. >> exactly. exactly. i think the broader question is what are we going to see in terms of the real humanitarian issue and the political issues that fall on the frut from that. >> considering 48 hours they weren't going to do any of this, it's not surprising they have nothing in place because they had no intention of enacting this policy. now they have the real intense scrutiny on them, and i think the holes are going to show in

their program. this is a really difficult issue. a little room yesterday.mselves the political situation was getting so bad. the republicans were really, really worried about the political fallout of this. >> just because we're talking raw politics here -- >> that's what i talk about. >> i know you, carl. on the democratic side, they are being attacked by the president and by people who didn't like this policy in the first place, like marco rubio. here's what marco rubio said on twitter about the democrats. based on senate speeches, democratic position is don't detain children, don't detain their parents, either, so we don't separate families and don't deport them if they fail to appear for subsequent hearings. so basically if you enter unlawfully with children, we won't enforce the law. this sounds like maybe a hard line position, but it's actually

not rkts a not, and coming from marco rubio, it's really not, so are the democrats painting themselves into a position that allows for the republicans to get political advantage? >> yeah, you have some republicans taking it too far and basically saying democrats are for open borders. the president saying the democrats supported ms-13. those kinds of lines and attack of argument are absurd. but this idea of what do democrats actually stand for in terms of immigration reform in handling this problem at the border in terms of these specific issues with folks coming over the border with kids? what do they want to do? you haven't heard a lot in terms of specifics and you imagine that republicans who have been so on the run in terms of this issue and painted in awful ways, and sometimes deservedly so in terms of this specific policy of separating folks. they can score some points with democrats on this. >> i talked to a senator who was part of a bipartisan discussion on if there is a bipartisan way

to do this and the response was, we're pretty far apart. which is a lot because these are people who like to talk to each other. even if the house manages to pass an immigration bill today, which is a huge "if," is there any hope in the senate? spoil eer alert. the answer is no. we'll take you behind the scenes on what we're talking about, up next.

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welcome back to "inside politics." we are waiting for a tape of the president speaking to reporters during the cabinet meeting that's going on right now. but one thing we can tell you from the press pool that is in there, they're reporting that the president announced that melania trump, the first lady, is currently at the border. melania trump is currently at the border. let's get straight to abby phillip at the white house to see if we can get any information about this surprise trip from the first lady.

abby? >> reporter: melania trump traveled early this morning down to the bored e doder, down to t where she is expected in a few minutes to tour some facilities where they're housing some of these migrant children, some of them who came here with their parents who were separated, others who came here unaccompanied. this trip comes just a couple of days after melania trump iss an extraordi statement for a first lady, commenting on her husband's policy and suggesting that she wanted it to end, she wanted the policy of separating children and their families to end. now the first lady is down in texas. some of my colleagues at cnn are traveling with her, so we will hear more from them once they arrive. but the president breaking the news at this meeting saying that his wife is down in texas -- >> abby? >> -- visiting the border now. >> abby, i'm sorry to interrupt. you mentioned our colleagues were traveling with her.

one of them is kate bennett. we have her on the phone. she is in motion with the first lady so let's get right to her. kate, what are you seeing and hearing and what is the latest? >> we just arrived i pouring rain inside texas. we're heading to a facility that houses children. some of them are tender age, ages 5 to 17 here. the first lady is expected to get a roundtable discussion together with experts -- i'm sorry, i'm walking and talking -- and then she will tour the facility and perhaps connect with some of these children. she wanted to see firsthand. her spokeswoman told us that this was 100% her decision, that she told the president, i'm heading to texas, and he said he supports it. this was a decision she made two days ago before the executive order was signed. >> and kate, what does it tell you that -- i said the word surprise -- the better word is

unannounced. what does it tell you that a first lady who is media shy made the point of bringing you and bringing cameras to capture this in mcallen, texas? in fact, we're looking at new images, kate, that i believe and you your crew just captured. what does it tell you and what have you heard specifically about why this was so important to the first lady? >> reporter: well, i will say this. we had a short briefing on the plane down here, dana, and her spokeswoman did say that as a mother, as a first lady, as a human being, she has seen images on the news, she has heard the recordings. this is sometng she wanted to see firsthand. that was reiterated to us over and over. this is not her acting as an emissary on behalf of the president.

he is not sending her here. she is here on her own volition. this trip was hastily put together. i think it does mean a lot to her to be here and see it in person. dana, she's about to walk in. i'm going to have to hang up here with you, but again, this is the first stop of an unexpected two visits to two facilities while we're down here if the weather holds again. we're in a flash flood situation, so certainly we're playing it by ear. but this facility is operated by hhs. it houses children, about 60 of them, and she expects to take a tour and do a briefing. >> kate, i've been there where you're trying to run and gun and still report at the same time, so get to it and talk quietly. get to it. we'll definitely get back to you. thank you for bringing us this breaking news and for being there with her to bring it to us. let's get back with the panel. i mean, there is so many layers to unpeel here. first and foremost, that we understand from reporting, and i think now the president has even

admitted publicly that the first lady coming to him and saying, you got to do something helped spur the 180 that he made yesterday in this narrow executive order, as confused as it might be. that combined with the fact that you have this unprecedented bipartisan group of first ladies who probably helped to really turn the tide on this issue. >> well, you know, i think that she is interested and she wants to show compassion. i think ivanka trump also was talking to members on the hill. but it does highlight the split between her husband and herself. so in some ways, you know, this is going to emphasize the program, and we'll give people a look. now, i presume that it will also, you know, show this facility to be capable and clean and everything, but it is a tricky situation here due to her opposition to the program that the president was insisting on keeping in force until yesterday. >> that's a very good point, is

what images are we going to see? are we going to see her, you know, with children who are well cared for? let's hope. but are we going to see images that the administration wants to put out, even more so than we've seen -- and i should say that we have a picture of the first lady speaking with officials down there in mcallen, texas at one of these facilities. she might be speaking publicly. we're going to wait to see that, but right now those are the images you're seeing, her getting a briefing from the officials that are down there. >> i was going to say, yes, she's down there. she's bringing more attention to this issue that there are small children still in detention. the real test is does this go beyond a photo op management situation? does she keep the focus on these children making sure there is a solution for them? as we discussed, there is not right now. they're handedly putting it together at the moment. we haven't seen melania trump really use the influence that

she has, because she certainly does, and we'll see if this is one of the first time she do >> knowing her and the way she has, to put it bluntly, trolled her husband on issues like this in the past, tha it's likely to be much more than image management, but really a chance to put the spotlight on an issue that she doesn't want to let go of. >> yeah, and we've seen first ladies do this before. eleanor rosevelt famously would go out in the country in the depths of the great depression and bring back stories to fdr, primarily because fdr was in a wheelchair and couldn't do that. compassion has to be outsourced to first ladies. the president had to be convinced by his wife and daughter that this was a bad idea. why didn't he come to himself? ted cruz apparently didn't need his wife to know that this is something that shouldn't happen. >> i was just going to say forgive us with the pictures, the images that you're seeing.

this is obviously a raw feed coming in from the first lady. go ahead. >> i was just going to add that there is a political factor here. the president and the administration had a really difficult time with it. this is showing a different image. but at the same time, there is a fine line for the president to walk here. he cannot show too much empathy for this because he has the potential of losing some of his base who want him to be harder. at the same time he can't go in the other direction because he might lose some of the moderates if he's too sympathetic. >> let's listen in to what's happening there with the first lady. >> good morning, everybody. my name is kurt senski and it's a privilege for me to serve as the chief executive officer of upbring. upbring is a 106-year-old faith-inspired organization, and our mission here in texas and louisiana is to break the cycle of child abuse by empowering

children, family and communities. new hope is a very important part of our mission. similar to some of the children that we care for at our residential treatment center, our foster homes who may have been removed for opioid addiction, these children also come from a very difficult journey. and our staff here are committed to praying for them, they're committed to providing case management services, they're committed to providing everything a child needs in order to be successful. what we've experienced, mrs. trump, is that the evidence demonstrates that for any child to be successful, whether your child or my child or a child in texas or a child in new hope, we need to surround them with what we call the five markers of success. safety is first, life skills, health -- and health would be emotional health,

trauma-informed care, spiritual health as well as physical health. education. you'll see it at our charter school later, and vocation so every child has the opportunity to live out his or her calling. we appreciate you being here today. we're honored to show you our shelter. it's a shelter that currently cares for 58 children, children who come from very difficult journeys and we treat them like our own children. so with that, i'm going to allow the secretary, of course, to say a few words and to introduce our special guest. >> dr. senski and roy as program director here and all of you, thank you so much for welcoming us here. i just wanted you to know how very grateful we are at the department of health and human services for everything new hope does for these children. we're glad to hear more about it

and about your passion and what it is you do. we're privileged to be with you, and i'm just delighted the first lady is spending today with us and is getting to meet your children and meet you and hear from you. so thank you very much, and mrs. trump, it goes over to you. >> thank you so much for having me here today. looking forward to seeing the children. but first of all, let me begin to recognize each of you and thanking you for all that you do, for your heroic work that you do every day and what you do for those children. we all know they're here without their families, and i want to thank you for your hard work, your compassion and your kindness you're giving them in these difficult times. i'm here to learn about your facility which i know you house children on a long-term basis.

and i would also like to ask you how i can help these children to reunite with their families as quickly as possible. so thank you again for all that you do, and thank you as well. thank you, all, for what you do. thank you very much. and you can say a few words. >> absolutely. again, thank you, dr. senski, secretary, first lady for being here. what we'll do now is everyone around the table here can introduce themselves and give a brief role of what it is you all do within your agencies. should we start with you? >> brian harrison. i'm the deputy chief of staff and secretary at the department of health and human services.

>> i'm chief of the border patrol, and we encounter the many unaccompanied children that come into our country. >> good morning, i'm maggie wynn. i work with children who are sheltered here. >> i'm the clinician here. we provide all the mental health services and the support while they're on their journey and upon their reunification. >> i'm a case manager . my role here is reunification. >> i'm the shelter unit manager and i take care of the everyday operations with the children. >> i am beth reha. i'm the medical coordinator here at new hope. we do the health screenings for all the new children. >> good morning, i'm the lead teacher aide and i make sure

these kids get the best education we can give them so they can have a successful life. >> hello, good morning. i am with hhs and i work with a program in reviewing the cases of the children who will be reunited with their family members. >> i'm a field supervisor for the division of child separations. it's nice to meet you. >> thank you very much. i understand you have 55 children here? >> we have 58. >> and those children, how many times do they speak with their relatives or families per week, for example? >> the children are allowed to communicate with their family twice a week. they get a phone call. but first we have to ensure that the persons they're contacting,

their families, are indeed their families, so there is a process. we have to follow all our policies and regulations and make sure we positively identify that the persons they are communicating with are, indeed, their family. and that could be through verification of birth certificates, photo identification. but we do communicate with the families. >> so when the children come here, what kind of stage, physical and mental stage do they come here? what would you say the percentage that come here? >> usually the great majority are a higher percentage rate. usually when they get here, they're very distraught in the sense that they don't know where they're at. they're thinking they're going to continue in the process of just processing them. when they see the environment and they see the other kids and they see the yard, they start

relaxing. the first 24 hours are crucial for us, making sure we got them the basic needs, showers, clothing, food, before we even start the assessment. within 24 hours, our unit shelter manager is in charge of doing a brief update with what's going on with them, that way we can address it immediately. eventually every department takes a turn at assessment of the kids. it's a process. >> they seem very happy, and they love to study? they love to go to school? >> absolutely. when the children first get here, it is a process. they go through an orientation, they go through a 24-hour orientation. this is where we get as much information as we possibly can from the children, again, to assess and make sure we're not missing anything. if there is an immediate medical need, that is immediately

addressed. if there is an immediate mental health issue that needs to be addressed, we bring in our clinicians and take it from there. after they do an orientation -- they go through several orientations. they go through the case manager orientation, clinical orientation, so they will get the understanding of their current placement. again, this is to inform them and keep them as calm as possible, and to reassure them that they are in a safe place, that they will be well. now they're in a safe environment free from abuse. everything is something new for the children. we provide a lot of structure here. during the monday through friday schedule, they do attend class and we try to educate them, we

try to assimilate them to what the public school system is going to be like. then we also integrate recreational activities, spiritual care for the children, down time for them. you know, this is their home. you know, they refer to these as shelters, but it is really a home for the children. this is their house. so their bedrooms are their bedrooms, and as you will see, firstlady, when we do the tour, you'll see the children and you'll see the smiles on their pa faces and you'll hear them giggle. it's just fantastic. the staff we have here, we just have a tremendous passion for working with these children, and we see them as if they were our own. we do maintain boundaries and we do follow all the o.r. policies

and guidelines, but just the passion that is there in working with these children, ensuring that their safe and ultimately. >> how long is the time that they spend here that they will be reunited with their family? >> right now we're averaging 42 to 45 days. it's not an extended stay. the average length of stay is between 42 and 45 days. >> there is some occasions where the children do not have anybody to go back to, and in those situations, they are further assessed by the legal service provider that can help identify if they qualify for some type of

legal relief and they go to refugee status and not unaccompanied children. it's few and far between, but we do have that process where some children do not have anybody to go to, their families have been killed, murdered, just different, very tragic situations. hopefully when you to speak to some of the children -- to a couple of the children today, you'll see that there is not hope for them to go back to a country that they're leaving. so we get the broad spectrum. we have kids that come into custody and are reunified rather quickly if everything works out and if they can qualify for refugee status. >> so these children also don't

come here alone without parents? >> the majority of our children, yes, ma'am, they are unaccompanied or detained by dhs and border patrol for the majority. and that's a big part of who we are and who we work with, yes, ma'am. >> because they're between 12 and 17 years old, right, so they kind of understand where they are. they're not young young? >> yes, ma'am, that's correct. >> do you have the ability to take care of children here younger than 12? >> our state license does allow us to take children as young as six. . . and on times they will place young children in the foster.

>> can you explain that process, how you do that? >> so at the time of detention or apprehension, we work very closely with our parents at homeundersta homeunderstand. we have a network of foster homes throughout the united states that are loons many. it's a family setting these kids work in. we assess them for any medical need or serious complication where we may have to find the right situation because we get every type of child in our system, someone who is nonverbal to someone whose mom perished in

the rio grande somewhere. those kids are taken care of very special with special circumstances and they're throughout the united states also. >> and we also have foster care programs in corpus christi as well as el paso and today we're currently serving over 100 children in this program. >> great. thank you very much. i'm looking forward to meeting the children and tour the facilities. thank you very much again for all of what you do. >> we have been watching something pretty extraordinary

and unusual, an unannounced visit but one that the first lady clearly wanted to get out to the world, bringing our kate bennett and our camera crew and our live equipment to show her first stop at a detention center in texas, in mcallen, texas. she had these discussions. i want to talk about this with our panel, with the federal and local officials who are running this detention center, trying to get information. one thing that was noteworthy is it sounds like the majority of the children who are there came unaccompanied, about 10%. there are 60 kids, so about five or six, were separated from their families. that's the experience that she has and she's about to get when she actually tours, which we're not seeing quite yet. it looks like there is a shot of her starting her tour. you know what, let's listen in to this.

>> it allows me to know what their daily schedule will be like. it outlines the week and also the daily facility. the children know exactly what they'll be doing throughout the day. of course we have our goals. >> it seems organized. >> they keep it very organized. they keep up with their rules. we do have certain rules, but for the most part, children maintain their rooms. they take ownership while they're here, and a lot of times they'll say, this is my bed? they never had a bed before. absolutely, this is your bed while you are here. >> one of our few complaints we get is that they think it's cold in here.

>> we can walk to another room here. >> you can see this is raw, live tv, everybody. we are going with what we're getting down there because this is something that obviously is happening on the fly. you just, i think, heard one of the press officials there saying no cameras. at that point it looked like that was at the time when the first lady was actually going to go in and interact with the children. you saw the beginning of her tour listening to the man who heads that shelter there, explaining what the schedules are for the children during the day, so on and so forth. let's bring it back around the table. just to talk about, first and

foremost, the imagery and the import of what we just saw and the fact the first lady was and is there. >> it's important. most of the children there, as you noted, are not the children that were taken from their parents. they're children that have come unaccompanied across the border. we heard a lot about this, actually, during the obama administration and he received lots of criticism for how he dealt with that crisis a couple years ago. yes, it's important that she's taking the press through. it's important that she's drawing attention to this. that said, that briefing was a little bit like everything is fine. the kids come in here, they're a little upset and then they relax, i think is what one of the officials there said. we've read accounts that that is not the case, especially with these young children who come in and do not calm down, are cat

catatonic. there could be permanent damage to what has already occurred with them. forgive me for looking at it with a bit of a skeptical eye. >> and these are 60 children but the age range is 5 to 17. so this is not the tender age facility of one of themve been hearing about and talking so much about. these are kids, presumably, who can community unlike some of the babies who can't and just want to be held and be held by their parents and can't. most of the kids here did strike the border unaccompanied. >> this is a hand-picked place to give the government an impression of what these facilities are like. we don't know what they're like. there are some in michigan, there's some in south carolina, some in texas as well. they're run by different sorts of people, and that's what this highlighted to me, again, with how little we know and how selective the government has

been in giving access. the president tried to get access to some of these places and they've been very sparing in terms of allowing cameras in. certainly there are privacy issues. these are young kids. it was hard to hear what they were saying in that exchange but they seemed to suggest that it could take 45 days for kids to be reunited with their parents, or if ty're unaccompanied mi mino minors. there was one statement that said children will move on to refugee status. is that because they're unaccompanied minors and already their families are not there? is it because their parents have traveled back and there's nowhere to place them? i don't know if this will be the feel-good story that the white house thinks it is. >> they were obviously going for that. they want to show this is a place with a lot of programs, well run. these are obviously people who

care about what they do. >> these kids have been taken away from their families and they might be able to make a phone call to someone. they come in, they're upset. it's driving the point that this is still going on. and they're not quite sure. >> let me just say the images that we're looking at here from moments ago and right now you. the shelter rules are that they don't want to have cameras in there no matter who is in there. that's understandable. go ahead. >> i think the first lady does deserve some credit for going down there, visiting these children, showing her face and being there. but there are just so many questions. the fact is these kids are there without their parents. unfortunately, i think that's not the image that they want to

portray. melania going there is not a substitute for a parent. i'm sure they would much rather be there with a parent. and i would be curious if those are the kinds of questions that will be posed to the first skplaeld ilfrom the president who is just wrapping up his cap n toll hill visit. >> it's a horror. you can imagine being ripped from your parents at that age. i remember going off to kindergarten and being horrified i was separated from my mom for an afternoon. you imagine these kids are there. we'll see what the first lady is prepared to do when she gets back. i do think she should be commended for going down there and bringing some information back to the president and bringing information about

what's going on with those kids down at the border. but i think, as you said, more questions and more uncomfortable questions for this white house. >> and so kate bennett, among things she's reporting back, is that the first lady says she wants to see a realistic view of what's happening. this is one of two shelters she's going to get to. now, she is seeing a realistic view. she's being told by the people who run the place what's happening, and she will and she is getting a chance to actually talk to the children. i want to go to the white house and the president speaking at his cabinet meeting. >> hello, everybody, thank you very much for being here. this is a cabinet meeting and we have plenty of things to discuss and plenty of success. we've had a tremendous amount of success. we're working, however right now, on immigration, which has been going on for many years.

we have come up with a lot of solutions but we have democrats that don't want to approve anything because that's probably, they think, bad for the election that's coming up. unfortunately, there are a lot of people suffering and that's unfortunate. unrelated and b we get into that, the new employment claims recently out just yesterday show that we have the lowest level in nearly half a century. that's something that is an incredible statistic in half a century. it's a long time. the economy is booming. it's doing very well. we're taking a little period of time. we put tariffs on certain countries and certain industries where it's been very unfair to the united states. our treasury is taking in billions of dollars and these

other countries are they don't treat us well and we're negotiating very viciously. thisuld have come on before my administration came into being, but for some reason, for 25 years, no one looked at trade control. we're going to make them fair far our country and traditional. they're all bad, there's nothing good. my administration is also acting swiftly to address the illegal immigration crisis on the southern border loopholes and our extremist open border democrats. that's what they are, extremist, open border democrats.

you'll see tapes of unguarded borders. if people penetrate our borders, we must get them out of our country. all of a sudden it's a big con job and in the meantime, our people are suffering because of the democrats. >> we've created, they've skpraetd we' created and we let it happen, a small kid facility. human trafficking is happening. it's a disgrace. they allow 2,014 alone, nearly 2,000 una expected riders.

putting in catch and release, which is buft worst. you catch them, then you release. this is what we're stuck with. they're the worst immigration laws in the history of the world. the whole world is laughing at the united states and they have been for years. these alien minors were separated and sent all the way up here alone. but they really came up with coyotes -- do you know what a coyote is? not good. these were not good people. they were set up with. >> i don't know how we allowed this to happen. they also decided to fund the person fel

personnel. i think we're going to have a red wave, not a blue wave. they want us to take care of bed space and resources and personnel and take everybody, like l run theost luxurious hotel in the world for everybody, but they don't want to give us the money. so you could ask them about that. we have to house these minors and we have to house them safely, and frankly, we have to house them and we should be taking good care of them and then we should return them back home. that's what we have to do. every time we ask for resources, the democrats say no. they say no to everything. they're obstructionists. they think it's good politically. for them i think it's bad politically. we'll see.

loopholes present family detention and separation. no matter how you cut it, it leads to separation ultimately. i'm instructing u.s.s. groups to honor these separated groups. but the real thing for congress is to catch and's lethese loopholes that are in the child separation industry. the democrats are interrupting chil childs' lives for not doing something like this. if we don't close these loopholes, there is no amount of money or person in the world to address the crisis. a very serious crisis. it's been going on so long, this isn't the trump administration. you look back at 2014 during the

obama administration. they have pictures that were so bad. they had a. they talk about inhumane treatment. i read them. i looked at them. they're all over the place. . we have a situation where some of these places, they're really running them well. i give a lot of credit to secretary nielsen and all the people that have worked. it's the nicest that people have seen. but it's still something that shouldn't be taking place. my wife, first lady, is down now at the border because it really bothered her to be looking at this and seeing it, as it bothered me, as it bothered everybody at this table. we're all bothered by it. but we need two to tango. we have 51 votes in the senate.

we need 60, unfortunately, because we have the ridiculous filibuster rule. so we need 60. and i think i'll get four or five or six from senators, frankly, running in states where i won by 25, 30, 45 points with mike. and i think we'll get six senators, maybe we'll get seven senators. that still doesn't get us to 60, so there's nothing you can do to get there. people don't understand that. when we have a majority, we have a majority of one, but we need ten votes. so we need -- essentially we need 10, 11 democrats. they don't care about the children, they don't care about the injury, they don't care about the problems. all they do is obstruct.

their good at obstructing and they often stick together. their policies stink. they have democrats. all they can do is taking care of children and families and have an immigration bill. this is one at pekt of it. . we should be able to do a bill. i invited them to come to the white house any time they want. after the cabinet meeting would be good. they're invited officially. i'll let you do the inviting. let the press do the inviting. but we have to do something about immigration in this country. for 50 years and long before that, it was a disaster. but over the last 20, 25 years, it's gotten worse. every time they write a rule or regulation, it makes it worse,

not better. we can solve this problem. we have to hire thousands of judges. no country in the world is hiring sdwrs like that. mexico has the strongest i am law. they walked through mexico like it was walking through central park. when people say, why are you being so tough with nafta? i am being tough. it's a terrible deal for the united states. mexico is making $100 billion a year off us and the horrible nafta deal. i am being tough. one of the reasons i'm being tough is they do nothing for us at the border. they encourage people to walk through mexico and go to the united states.

they're drug. mexico is doing nothing to us exce except. they could solve this problem and in 2 minutes you won't have to do anything. it will be very interesting to see. i'll end by saying we had a tremendous success in north korea. we continue to work on that. mike pompeo has been fantastic, john bolton working together with mike has been fantastic. you spend so much time in north korea, i'm surprised to see you here. but i think i can speak for both of us in saying, i know, the

relationship is very good. they stopped shooting missiles, including ballistic missiles. they've already blown up one of their first test sites. the there will be a total denukization, which has already started taking place. the remains of our great heros who died in north korea during the war. that's already in the process of coming back. as you all know very well, we got rid of our r. they're working with their families is -- and we're making tremendous progress since we last talked with you. they're agreeing to meet and it

would not have been impossible for past administrations to have met the way we met. this is an important. in japan, i spoke to prime minister abe. he's so thrilled. he doesn't have rockets going over japan. he said, i want to thank you because when you've done is. things can change, personalities can change, maybe you end up with conflict, maybe you don't. but the relationship that and his group is a very good one, a very good